If you use or develop open source projects, it’s worth checking out [Phillip Torrone]’s Unspoken rules of Open Source article. You may not HAVE to do all the things he says, but it’s certainly a good starting point for being ethical with your hacks.

The [GoAmateur] Camera Mount

If you can’t afford a professional camera mount for your bike, why not make one yourself? As pointed out in the article, normal cameras aren’t really made for this, so do so at your own risk. If this isn’t shoddy enough for you, why not make a mount for your 4 year old dumb-phone (Env2) out of a block of wood?

A 3D Printer BOM

If you’re wondering how much a 3D printer will cost you, or where to source the parts, this Bill of Materials for a Prusa Mendel should help. We would assume this project will be updated as everything is built, so be sure to check back!

MakerBot Assembly Time-Lapse

Along the same lines, if you’re wondering about getting into 3D printing, this time-lapse of the Thing-O-Matic being assembled may give you some insight into what’s involved in getting one functional!

I wasn’t able to get anywhere near that $300 for a Prusa build I just finished, but then again I didn’t try that hard to scrounge. I also built with the iteration 2 Prusa parts, which have a very different BOM which isn’t really specified anywhere, so I wound up making a few runs to a local bolt shop. This is my first big robotics/mechanics project, and certainly my first experience with a 3D printer, so I made a lot of mistakes along the way.

OTOH I’m confident I could get near that if I built another one and got in on some of the special deals, like the Jhead group buy.

As for assembly time… I think it took me two weeks of about 3 hours an evening. Now I have a 1″ Weighted Companion Cube and a pile of calibration objects to show for it.

Lessons learned:
-Don’t build a Prusa 2 until a BOM gets added to the Github or you plan to get a kit

-Buying off eBay is a crap shoot. Ask about sellers or the item link on #reprap or the Reprap forums if you’re not sure

-Using a nut splitter to take off pulleys from used steppers may bend or deform the axle.

-Big Prusa 2 gotchas: x-axis rods are <400mm, but nobody has an official number, so trim until it fits. No bed levelers, which may come back to haunt you. Hex insets in the plastics are for nuts and undersized, you are supposed to use a soldering iron to heat the nuts and sink them into the plastic.

-Don't fret over wires, good quality stranded CAT5 (24AWG) works great for everything except the last few inches to the hotend, the heated bed, and 12V in.

I’ve been using this trick for a long time… but you want to be really quick with your soldering, or use a junk breadboard. I typically only tack the corners of a header, put it out and then solder everything (still just long enough to get it done and not too long and too hot or you’ll melt the plastic on the headers).

That breadboard technique works great if you set your boards up on a 0.1″ grid I’ve used it a lot. but wont work on an arduino shield. I normally use the stackable headers, and I will tack down one pin on each header and then flip the board over, Hold the header with one finger and heat the single pin. The solder melts and then I set the pin header straight.

Neat trick for straight headers, will have to try it. Adam’s technique is good too. And for perfboards, you can pop in some temporary headers next to the one you’re soldering, then use jumpers to connect them together; which helps keep them straight.